


Running

by goodbye_fornow



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Ahsoka has had some trouble, But they work through everything, Kinda, Obi-Wan is vague, Post Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Pre Star Wars: Rebels, Somewhere in the gap, Working out feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-20 12:50:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6006679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodbye_fornow/pseuds/goodbye_fornow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ahsoka Tano was always running. She ran from the Republic. Then she ran from the Jedi Order. Then she ran from the clone troopers. And now she runs from the Empire. But she was always, always, running from her past. </p>
<p>Obi-wan Kenobi was always hiding. He hid from his responsibilities. Then he hid from the Jedi Order. Then he hid from the clone troopers. And now he hides from the Empire. And he always, always, hid from his past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Running

Fallen padawan to the legendary Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, found herself mindlessly adrift in the outer rim. It was a nice change of scenery from the scarcely populated, desolate planets she had just jumped from. Her nav-computer had no comprehensive data on where she had just been, and she’d rather leave it that way. It hadn’t been a pretty place, but it did serve her purpose.

 

But that didn’t matter anymore. The present was all that mattered. Not the past. Not the future. Just know. Or at least that’s what she told herself to believe.

 

For now, she needed to pick a planet to land on. One without a large Imperial presence that was actually populated. Rather than revert to the Jedi ways and reach out into the Force to pick a planet, she did the thing normal people would do. She looked it up.

 

Scrolling through a list of nearby planets, her eyes finally found a place that she had at least heard of before. Though she couldn’t (or didn’t want to) recall where she knew the name from, she had a gut feeling that this was where she needed to go. Tatooine. 

 

As much as she refused to give in to her Force based instincts, gut feelings happened to everyone, even people who weren’t Force sensitive. Or so she told herself. 

 

As she pulled into Mos Eisley, the optimistically called spaceport, she sensed something she hadn’t felt in years. Even though she could not place who this person was, she had a feeling that this was a long time coming. Ahsoka could not tell if she was walking into her own death, and she was perfectly fine with that.

 

Looking around, she saw what she was looking for. The most populated place in town seemed to be the Cantina. A place where a little bit of everything could be found. She supposed that she was a special something in that everything. An anomaly, as much as she hated to admit it. 

 

Getting a couple shots of whatever they were offering, she felt the sudden urge to get up and leave. Considering that she wasn’t drunk at all yet, this was strange. Figuring that today was a strange enough day already and it couldn’t get weirder, she chose to do what it told her to. 

 

Which apparently meant going out into the desert and dying. Probably reasonable, but still. For a Togruta like her, it would be pathetic. Especially for a Togruta like her.

 

When she thought that she might have already died and that death was just an eternal desert, she happened upon a house. 

 

On second glance, house was an optimistic word for it. This place really is full of optimistically named places, isn’t it. It was more of a hole than a house. She barely even believed anyone lived in it until she saw a man coming out of it. 

 

And then Ahsoka Tano remembered. 

 

 

_ Color everywhere. Masters and padawans. No I’m not yours I’m his. No you’re wrong. I’m with Skyguy. Why are you calling me Snips? _

 

_ Red and blue. Guns and ships. Isn’t it all the same? Droids and more droids. Bombs and not bombs. Battles and even more battles. Endless fights. Endless clones. Endless droids. Too much. Way too much. _

 

_ Slaves. Deaths. Electricity. Tatooine. Slavery. Jumping. Falling. No more. Flashbacks. Bird food. Tatooine. Skyguy’s slavery. _

 

_ Smiles. Happiness. Death. Pain. Waves. Droids feel. Clones don’t. Clones feel. Droids don’t. Doesn’t matter in the end. Everyone is dead. _

 

_ Falling. Running. Running for the first time. Smiling for the last. Sewers. Water. Ships. Goodbye. _

 

_ Hand opening. Hand forced closed. Goodbye. She said. He cried. She was the undoing. Goodbye. _

 

_ Dead Jedi. Bad clones. Good clones? Not at all. Goodbye world.  _

 

_ Running, running, stopping, falling… _

  
  


Ahsoka Tano blinked awake, startled by a blindingly bright light. “I know. The suns combined with the sand takes a bit of getting used to. But they’ll set soon and it’ll be easy for you,” remarked an old friend.

 

“Obi-wan Kenobi. Is it really you? You’re still alive?” Ahsoka murmured to the silhouette.

 

“The wan and only. Honestly, you haven’t changed much since I last saw you. But you’re still so different. What happened to you?” 

 

She resisted the urge to punch him, simply because she hadn’t regained enough strength to fight him properly yet. Later, she would punch him for that. But now, she would talk. Starting off quietly, “I left Couroscant. I wanted to be away from him. I… I woke up with only hazy memories and a lot of Deja Vu somewhere barely in my ship’s computer. It’s a miracle I stayed alive long enough to be here,” she paused, gesturing to Obi-wan’s lack of decent living quarters, “And I’ve been jumping around since, barely surviving. Trusting my instincts. Surpressing the Force. I just somehow knew it was bad and not to show it. I wasn’t positive what it was, but I knew it wasn’t normal and I should never use it. And then the Jedi were all pronounced dead and Vader and Palpatine rose and now I’m here with you having just remembered my past. Now, what happened to you?”

 

Obi-wan sighed heavily, mentally steeling himself against the onslaught of memories before starting. “Well, I fought Vader on Mustafar. I ran from the clone troopers. I fought Vader and I’m the reason he’s in that suit. He should’ve died, yet he lives. I should’ve died, yet I live. We all should never have died and yet too many of us did.”

 

“You fought Vader before he was put into the suit? You know who he is beneath the mask?” 

 

“I know who he was. I don’t know what he has become.”

 

“But who was he?”

 

“A Jedi, same as you and I. But he’s not anymore, and neither are we.” 

 

“Did I know him?”

 

“Ahsoka. Please. We have other things to talk about. Like what to do now. Do you have a plan?”

 

“An hour ago I didn’t know what my past was. You really expect me to have a plan?”

 

“Well I was hoping you could make something up on the spot like old days.”

 

“‘Like old days’? I was never making the plans. That always fell to Anakin…”

 

Obi-wan turned away from her and briefly glanced out the window watching the twin suns set as if he was seeing a ghost. 

 

Ahsoka, annoyed by her lack of knowledge, plowed on. “Obi-wan, what happened to Anakin? Is he somewhere else? Is he safe? Obi-wan, please!”

 

“Anakin is dead. That’s all you need to know.”

 

“Oh.”

 

Obi-wan was deliberately not looking her in the eye, and Ahsoka noticed. Rather than get into an argument about it, she chose to accept that something else happened and that now was not the time. 

 

The two sat together in silence for awhile, merely enjoying the company of an old friend. If only Anakin was there to break the silence with a joke or comment or anything at all. As much as the silence was welcome, it was oppressive at the same time. It was as if the silence was a physical manifestation of all the dead Jedi, wishing they were instead of them.

  
A fallen padawan and a once great master. The last of the Jedi. Both holding secrets. Both without a real home. But with each other. And Ahsoka knew they would find a way to cope. Together. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!  
> Do you want me to add another chapter to this? I'm on the fence about it.


End file.
